ISLAMABAD: The accountability court here on Friday received four references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his three children and Finance Minis­ter Ishaq Dar from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), but raised objections to one of them for incomplete documentation.

NAB requested the court to accept the references against the Sharifs for trial and punish them in accordance with law as the bureau has found sufficient incriminating evidences of corruption against them.

Three references filed against Nawaz Sharif, his sons Hassan and Hussain and daughter Maryam included those related to the Avenfield Properties (Flat No16 and 16-A, 17 and 17-A Avenfield House, Park Lane, London, United Kingdom), Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Company, Jeddah, Flagship Investment Limited and 15 other companies owned by the Sharif family. The fourth reference was filed against Ishaq Dar for possessing assets beyond his known sources of income.

According to the accountability court registrar, NAB submitted ‘incomplete’ documents in the reference pertaining to the Avenfield properties, and was asked to provide the required documents. NAB submitted three copies of the reference, instead of five. Since the number of accused in this case is five, the bureau has to submit five separate documents.

Interestingly, NAB submitted the interim reference to meet the Sept 8 deadline given by the Supreme Court with whatever information available with it and further information regarding the mutual legal assistance (MLA) sought from different countries, including Saudi Arabia, will be provided to the accountability court later. But it does not mean that the trial will not start on the references filed on Friday.

Raises objections to one of them; NAB seeks punishment for accused in accordance with law

“The requests for MLA have been forwarded by the JIT (Joint Investigation Team) and response to them is still awaited, which will be placed before the honourable court when received from foreign jurisdictions. So under this scenario, this reference may be treated as interim reference,” said a document submitted to the court by NAB.

A spokesman for NAB denied media reports that the accountability court had returned one of the four references.

“In fact NAB could not provide five copies of the reference in the Avenfield case and, therefore, the court’s registrar asked the bureau to provide two more copies of it,” he explained.

“NAB has filed four references today (Friday) in the court and all have been accepted. No reference was returned as all four have been referred for trial,” he added.

He claimed NAB had done a good job by preparing the references and filing them in the accountability court within the stipulated time. “NAB will fully cooperate with the court in provision of the required documents.”

Meanwhile, accountability court registrar Ahmed Mushtaq Qureshi issued office orders confirming the receipt of three references against the Sharif family. The reference regarding Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metal Company is consisting of 21 volumes and the other related to 16 offshore companies of the Sharif family has 15 volumes that were submitted to the court.

In the light of the JIT report, the Supreme Court had on July 28 disqualified Nawaz Sharif as prime minister in the Panama Papers case and directed NAB to complete the investigation process and file references against the Sharifs in six weeks.

The NAB document submitted to the Accountability Court said the references against Nawaz Sharif and his children had been filed in compliance with the Supreme Court order of April 20 in constitution petition No-29/2016.

The JIT comprising representatives from the Federal Investigation Agency, NAB, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, State Bank of Pakistan, Inter-Services Investigation and Military Intelligence conducted investigation against the accused, collected evidences and submitted its final report on July 10.

It said the apex court had in its July 28 judgement directed NAB to prepare references against the accused on the basis of material collected and referred to by the JIT. Accordingly, an investigation has been authorised.

The document said the accused had used offshore companies to manage/acquire expensive properties and movement of funds to hide the real sources of funds.

According to the JIT report and investigation by NAB, it was established that the accused had failed to justify sources of funds for establishment/possession of assets and companies and consequently pecuniary proceeds disbursed among them.

“The accused were given ample opportunity to explain and provide evidence regarding the accumulation of these assets. However, they responded in their review petition filed before the Supreme Court against the aforementioned judgement dated July 28 and wanted NAB to pend investigation till its outcome,” the document said.

It said that according to the investigation proceedings and its finding so far, it was established that the accused in connivance with each other had committed the offence of corruption and corrupt practices as defined under 9 (a) (v) and (xii) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999.

“According to the material placed before NAB and orders of the Supreme Court, it is just and proper to proceed further against the accused as there is sufficient incriminating evidence to file the references. It is, therefore, prayed that the accused may be tried and punished in accordance with the law by this court or any other court to which this reference may be entrusted,” the document said.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2017